Water and wind erosion are now the two primary causes of land degradation; combined, they are responsible for 84% of degraded acreage.[1]

Each year, about 75 billion tons of soil is eroded from the land—a rate that is about 13-40 times as fast as the natural rate of erosion.[62] Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded.[63] According to the United Nations, an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because of drought, deforestation and climate change.[64] In Africa, if current trends of soil degradation continue, the continent might be able to feed just 25% of its population by 2025, according to UNU's Ghana-based Institute for Natural Resources in Africa.[65]

The loss of soil fertility due to erosion is further problematic because the response is often to apply chemical fertilizers, which leads to further water and soil pollution, rather than to allow the land to regenerate.